Team Primary Care Launches During Two-Day Event in Ottawa

The Team Primary Care initiative will transform the training of current and future generations of primary care practitioners, enhancing their ability to work in interprofessional teams

OTTAWA — February 23, 2023 —Team Primary Care: Training for Transformation is an initiative designed to transform interprofessional care training in Canada. To formally initiate this work, Team Primary Care has brought together over 150 government, health and education leaders across Canada for a two-day event in Ottawa on February 23 and 24, 2023.

At its core, Team Primary Care aims to improve access to more comprehensive and integrated care for all in Canada. This will be done by enhancing and aligning the training of individual primary care practitioners, allowing them to work together in team-based models of care. This initiative will include dedicated funding to support the optimization of existing primary care teams and the establishment of new ones.

“Most people living in Canada currently do not have access to comprehensive primary care. This reality, compounded with the health workforce shortage, makes the need for team-based care even more urgent,” said Claudia Zuccato Ria, Executive Director of the Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine. “By reimagining training for both current and future generations of primary care practitioners, we are kickstarting a key component of broader primary care reform, bringing us closer to connecting everyone in Canada to interprofessional teams providing comprehensive continuing primary care.”

Team Primary Care is a Foundation for Advancing Family Medicine initiative, co-led by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Canadian Health Workforce Network, in partnership with over 65 health professional and educational organizations across Canada.

“Our initiative reminds health system planners that it will take more than funding and infrastructure change to achieve the system transformation needed to expand primary care access in Canada,” said Dr. Ivy Oandasan, Co-Lead of Team Primary Care and Director of Education at the College of Family Physicians of Canada. “Team-based training is an important step to improve access to care.”

In collaboration with over 65 partners, 24 practitioner-specific and primary care team training projects are being developed with more anticipated to enhance, align and increase preparedness to practice in this collaborative approach to care delivery.

Team Primary Care will also create and adapt interprofessional training approaches across health professions including support for the full participation of Indigenous and internationally educated practitioners, maximizing their integration.

“Team Primary Care is a unique and timely initiative that brings together the full range of primary care practitioners to train and learn how to work together,” said Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Co-Lead of Team Primary Care and Lead of the Canadian Health Workforce Network. “Our initiative will increase the recognition of how each practitioner group can contribute to addressing the challenges individuals in Canada face in accessing primary care.”

By March 31, 2024, there will be several Team Primary Care training initiatives across the country with specific primary care practitioner groups and primary care teams. The work aims to be scaled and spread across the entire primary care health workforce.

“Every Canadian deserves the healthcare they need, when and where they need it,” said Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion. “Through the Sectoral Workforce Solutions Program, we are investing in transformative projects like Team Primary Care. The high- quality training that they will provide to primary care practitioners in collaborative settings will be essential to improving access to primary care in Canada.”

For more information, visit www.teamprimarycare.ca.